The fragile gains Republicans had been making among female voters have been erased by what in recent weeks has become a national shouting match over reproductive issues, potentially handing President Obama and the Democrats an enormous advantage this fall.

In the 2010 congressional midterm elections, Republican candidates ran evenly with Democrats among women, a break with long-established trends. That was a major reason the GOP regained control of the House.

THE FIX | In Ohio, polling shows support for both men was far less enthusiastic than you might expect. Now, female voters appear to be swinging back to Democrats.

When the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey asked last summer which party should control Congress, a slim 46-42 percent plurality of women said it should be the Democrats.

But in a survey released Monday, compiling polling since the beginning of the year, that figure had widened considerably to a 15-point advantage for the Democrats, according to polling by the team of Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. Fifty-one percent favored Democratic control; only 36 percent wanted to see the Republicans in charge.

Both sides have tried to shape the narrative in this battle for and about women. But many Republicans are beginning to wish they had never waded into what has become a heated conversation over contraception, who should have it and what it says about people who use it.

That's rich. When did George Step-on-all-of-us ask the contraception question at the debate? When did Obama issue the order against the Catholic church? Republicans didn't see the wedge coming, but they didn't go looking for it. It's like getting run over in the street and then being accused of jumping into the car.

9
posted on 03/09/2012 10:50:05 AM PST
by throwback
( The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.)

I think WaPo is basing this on the internal polls. We ignore this shift at our peril. The Republican leadership is asleep at the wheel and is failing to counter this “war on women” perception. Where’s the RNC chair? Our side allows a false meme to gather momentum until it’s too late.

Of course, this is the WaPo meaning its an exaggeration at best a flat out lie at worst..

...don’t know if it’s an exag or not, but you know it is PURE propaganda coordinated with the entire LamestreamMedia meme that Repeubs have a war on women, and 0bamao is the savior...
and they will push poll and journolist up the reports, articles and opinion to support the tale until it, for them, becomes a reality at election time... same old Alinsky playbook.

I don’t think the “shift” is BS- it’s real based on independent polling and I wonder why the RNC is not mounting an aggressive counter campaign to set the record straight that this is all about religious liberty and conscience? The MSM is setting the tone of this while our side lacks leadership and will. We will never learn if we keep blaming the messenger and bury our heads in the sand. Santorum is now shifting his theme to religious liberty but the MSM is not hearing this. Our only hope is for talk-radio to take it up via Levin and Hannity. Rush for the moment is “neutralized” at best on this issue.

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